Houston firefighters remove PPE after a call for a man experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, at a home in Houston.
Jon Shapley/Staff photographerDALLAS – The COVID-19 pandemic halted a 20-year trend in Texas of declining workers’ compensation claims.
From the start of the pandemic through early August, insurance carriers reported more than 90,000 COVID-19 claims and 459 COVID-related deaths to the Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation, part of the state insurance department. Eighty percent of the fatal claims involved men.
About 35% of COVID-19 claims received benefit payments, which totaled $121.6 million, while the other 65% received no benefit, according to the workers’ comp division’s latest COVID-19 claims data. Benefits included medical, income, death or burial.
In Texas, about 8 million COVID cases and 91,000 deaths have been reported since the pandemic started.
The months with the largest number of COVID-19 claims were January 2022, July 2020, December 2020, January 2021 and August 2021. The dates corresponded with spikes in overall COVID-19 cases reported in Texas.
Harris County, which includes Houston, accounted for the highest percentage of claims among the state’s counties. Its 16,073 claims represented 19% of the state total. Tarrant County claims totaled 8% and Dallas County 7%.
Certain jobs were more dangerous in terms of the virus than others. More than half of the COVID-19 fatal claims involved first responders and correctional officers.
A small portion of the claims – just over 700 – were related to vaccine reactions. Most were reported in January 2021, shortly after vaccines became available.
At the beginning of the pandemic, workers’ compensation stakeholders and regulators were worried about the impact on insurance carriers and injured employees, but their worries never materialized, according to the state.
“While many COVID-19 claims were filed, a significant fiscal impact never materialized,” the report said.
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